Professor Ion Iliciuc, senior specialist in pediatric neurology at the Ministry of Health, said he was discharged from the post of director of the Mother and Child Center for other reasons than those invoked. He stated he was dismissed because he raised the problem of the increasing number of invalid children that the authorities tried to hush up and because he revealed cases of money laundering at the institution, Info-Prim Neo reports. In a news conference on February 15, Ion Iliciuc said the number of invalid children in Moldova has grown, but the authorities hide the real figures because they do not want the truth to be known. He stressed that his position on child invalidity and the fact that he started to collect information from districts aroused the concern of senior pediatrician Petru Stratulat and officials of the Health Ministry’s Mother and Child Division. “I started to examine the invalidity problem in 2005, when I made a comparison with 1975. In 1975, there were over 100,000 births and the invalid children totaled over 13,000. In 2005, there were 38,000 births and 12,800 invalid children. I suggested making a relevant study, but the Health Ministry did not accept my proposal,” said Ion Iliciuc. According to the professor, another reason for which he was fired is the fact that he stopped the appropriation of tens of million lei from the institution. Iliciuc said that in 2009 the Ministry allocated 8 million lei for repair works, but nothing was done. The accountant of the Mother and Child Center was then dismissed, while the Ministry’s Financial Division got angry. Ion Iliciuc said he wants to restore his image, reputation and dignity because many of his colleagues accuse him of being a monster, doing experiments on children and promoting a medicine that causes brain cancer. He stressed he will go to court to restore his image. The author of the formula for the preparation Maturinol, Ion Iliciuc was discharged from the post of director of the Mother and Child Center on October 3, 2011 by an order made by Minister of Health Andrei Usatyi. The minister said then that among the reasons for the dismissal were the incorrect and inefficient management of the institution’s funds, the people’s dissatisfaction, and the use of the banned medicine Maturinol.